Advice?

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I need a "roomy" but strictly formal and recursive poetic form for a new poem I'm trying to put together.

I thought of both villanelle (insufficient room) and sestina (may be insufficient room). I'm wondering about the possibility of a septina--new form modeled on the changes in the Sestina; however, I'm not sure it works numerically, and I don't think I need the room of an "octina."

In fact, I'm thinking of going to some Persian forms. Or perhaps some Sanskrit forms. After all the Vedas are hundreds of thousands of lines long, surely that would be enough "room."

Would welcome input.

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4 Comments

If by "roomy," you mean a form where you don't have to worry about cramming in each precious syllable,
Ogden Nash mastered a style where the lines are, practically speaking, unfillable.
He tried to create poems that used whatever freeform meter was needed,
And succeeded.

Is 25 lines roomy enough, maybe a Rondeau Redouble? Or perhaps a Double Ballade (48 lines)...

Dear Tom,

Ogden's form would be fine
for a line,
But this needs some more formal
to be normal

Thanks though, and I will keep it in mind for something else I have planned.

Dan,

I'll reexamine those. Thank you.

shalom,

Steven

Just to add another suggestion - if you could pull it off, hows'bout a double sestina, like the one Sidney threw into his Arcadia? Or maybe none of these would work. You might have to invent a whole new stanza of irregular rhyme scheme and meter, perhaps taking as an inspiration that of Spenser's Epithalamion, or even Carruth's The Sleeping Beauty. In any case, I wish you the best. Them there long poems can be tough.

Peace.

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This page contains a single entry by Steven Riddle published on April 28, 2005 8:30 AM.

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